Take Along Thomas & Friends - Straight & Curved Track Pack

The good: My 3 year old daughter loves to play with Take Along Thomas trains and the plastic tracks and connectors are pretty durable since the joints do take a fair amount of abuse when being pushed and pulled by those little hands from side to side. They still connect together strongly and are a good exercise for her to piece them together.

The bad: There are basically 4 different pieces of track. A short straight, a long straight, a curve, and a curve with a fork (a 3-way). If you want to create more than just a circular or oval track, you have to use the 3-ways. Since the lengths of the short straight and the the 3-way turn are not complimentary (putting them together does not add up to the length of the long straight or the radius of a curve), it is difficult to make multiple loops in which the final connections line up. In order to get the final connection together, you have to stress the joints. This stress causes the connections to sometimes pop. It isn't really an issue for a 3 year old building a track, since they don't really care if all the tracks connect. But if you have an older child (OR A DAD WHO GETS ASKED TO BUILD COMPLETE TRACKS FOR HIS DAUGHTER), it can be frustrating to get the tracks to connect up. In addition, the 3-ways always turn in the same direction! How much money did they save in manufacturing by not having to make one more mold?

These tracks would be great if they did just two simple things: 1. Made the sizes of the pieces so that they were designed to all work together and 2. Spent the money in manufacturing to make a mold for a 2nd 3-way that turns in the other direction. Maybe I'm too picky, but I don't think it would have taken much more work or expense to get it right. I guess they figured little kids wouldn't notice or care.

This track was purchased b/c we did not want all the play sets but wanted something for the trains to run on.Dissappointed for a couple of reasons.You cannot use all the track piece that come in one bag to create a set up without having pieces left over you really need two bags to get full use of the pieces.Also dissappointed b/c we learned that not all of the take along trains fit on the track Fergus doesn't round corners very well (the wider the train the more difficult it is).Also like another reviewer found you have to run the trains in a particular direction to avoid frustration.On the up side it works pretty good with most of the trains and we found that other trains Geo trax, Thomas wooden railway and Tomy electric Thomas trains will work on the track, though the corners are tight so you have to nudge the trains along.I would not likely buy more of this product but I also don't feel that value is so terrible that it should be returned.If I were to do it again I would have bought more wooden track for his wooden railway.

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My now 6 year-old son cutand -pasted from a cataloghis entire Christmas list from the Thomas Take Along collection! This bag of track is a very practical accessory that allows much more flexibility to the system AND he can do layouts all by himself. The only frustration is that the Take Alongs are NOT compatable with any of the other Thomas stuff-wooden, interactive , or battery-powered (which we have alot of).

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We wanted to expand this collection for my son since he loves his round house station. We travel alot so it is nice to have this set. I do not believe this set is intended to make a complete track, it is intended to expand the sets you already have. It does what it is supposed toallow you to expand the track and make different track designs for the kids. My two year old is figuring it out, but for now I help him with it. It is pretty durable and he is happy with it. I don't have much trouble but no, you aren't going to make a complete track with no loose ends. Just use your creativity. that's what this toy is supposed to dogive kids the opportunity to be creative in developing their own tracks.I think it's great and I will probably buy my son the switch and change track pack too. He prefers this set to his wooden set and the trackmaster set is just too advanced for him... just an FYI...

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My son got a take along Thomas when he turned two and was quickly bored with the few tracks it came with so I bought these add-on tracks. He loves these tracks and spends hours configuring them. Although he likes to use them with his matchbox cars more than with the trains. Would definitely buy again and recommend to others.